


life on earth

by sinagtala (strikinglight)



Series: acts of intimacy [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Crying, Existential Angst, Homesickness, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-23 00:09:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11977989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strikinglight/pseuds/sinagtala
Summary: Keith remembers—the first time, it was because of the rain.





	life on earth

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by Gwen. Prompt: one reacting to the other crying.

Keith remembers—the first time, it was because of the rain.

It just so happened that they visited a planet that had it, to collect emergency supplies. They’d gone to market with Coran to hunt around for the goods, and Keith had felt it before he saw it. The wet pattering, invisible fingertips on the back of his neck. But while everyone around them—Coran, the little shopkeeper with the furry body and the bear-face, the axolotl people at the stalls that lined the road—unrolled tarps and ducked under awnings for shelter, Lance ran for the square, and stood there in the open with his face turned up like he was waiting for heaven to open up for him. Like he was half about to pray again.

Keith found him sitting on the floor of the observation deck that night, still looking up, still with water on his face. When Lance heard his footsteps and flailed his arms in a frantic half-circle as he stuttered _I’m not crying, it’s just raining on my face,_ Keith had been so bewildered he’d almost believed him, even if it should have been impossible. He could see the dome arcing over their heads, the thrice-reinforced glass between them and the sky and no rainclouds above. Only stars, up and up without end.

But then Lance had tried to say _go away_ and his voice had cracked into little pieces, and somehow Keith had heard _stay where you are_ instead, so he’d come over and sat down cross-legged next to him without really knowing what he was doing—just waited, saying nothing while he sniffled and sobbed and scrubbed at his eyes with the back of one hand.

When it stopped, they were quiet together, for a while.

 _I just really miss it,_ he admitted, in a tiny whisper, like he was scared the stars would hear him.

 _I miss the rains down in Africa_ , Keith answered, because his foot must have been in his mouth that night. He’d whispered it back, not sung it as he knew he should have if he wanted the joke to really fly, but Lance had laughed anyway, through the last of his tears.

They talked about water until Lance started looking like himself again, the white flashes Keith saw when he smiled that much brighter and sharper by starlight. When they finally got to their feet, yawning and stretching their arms as high above their heads as they’d go, he’d smiled as he said _this’ll be our little secret, okay?_ And Keith couldn’t pretend to understand the lonely, the longing, not with his own life on Earth already half-buried, no more than a couple of scattered shards the winds in the desert were already blowing dust over, but he knew it was something you didn’t just forget.

 _Okay,_ he said, and Lance had grinned so wide Keith couldn’t see the red in his eyes anymore.

_Thanks, man._

He doesn’t understand it until later. Much later, when Lance finds him standing in the hangar gazing up at the Black Lion, lost and small and adrift like the ground has crumbled out from under his feet. His eyes are burning and his cheeks are wet—probably Lance realizes these things before Keith himself does, because suddenly Lance is taking a step toward him and Keith is throwing his hands up in front of his face and blurting out _don’t look at me_ when he really means _stay here,_ and somehow he just knows Lance hears both at once.

 _I don’t know—_ he starts to say, but he hates too much the way his voice rasps when he tries to talk. More than anything he hates feeling that he can’t go on.

His hands are still over his face when Lance comes to stand beside him. Keith doesn’t realize how close they are until he hears his voice: _It’s okay,_ softly, soft as rain in a drought. Again, and again: _It’s okay._ _It’s okay, Keith._


End file.
